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Azul Zing vs IBM WebSphere Application Server comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 5, 2025

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

Azul Zing
Ranking in Application Infrastructure
16th
Average Rating
9.6
Reviews Sentiment
8.2
Number of Reviews
9
Ranking in other categories
AI Customer Experience Personalization (36th)
IBM WebSphere Application S...
Ranking in Application Infrastructure
6th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
5.4
Number of Reviews
32
Ranking in other categories
Application Server (5th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of September 2026, in the Application Infrastructure category, the mindshare of Azul Zing is 2.9%, down from 3.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of IBM WebSphere Application Server is 4.7%, down from 10.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Application Infrastructure Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
IBM WebSphere Application Server4.7%
Azul Zing2.9%
Other92.4%
Application Infrastructure
 

Featured Reviews

it_user500349 - PeerSpot reviewer
CTO at a financial services firm with 51-200 employees
It has helped us improve our latency performance drastically
As a large scale high performance trading platform serving the high frequency trading community, latency has always been critical for our clients. Before using Azul Zing JVM, we would have had to spend a lot of effort tuning our JVM GC and profiling our application to minimize latency, which is…
CF
Senior Manager, MW & DB Automation at a computer software company with 11-50 employees
Has worked seamlessly in complex clustered environments and supports long-term development efforts
IBM WebSphere Application Server is currently at version 9.0.5.23. In recent months, they released fix 23, as they periodically release fixes. Previously, they frequently increased versions, but now they maintain 9.0.5 with different releases. It's based on Java J2EE 7 and Java SDK 1.8. Oracle announced that 2030 will be the last year when Java SDK 1.8 will be supported. Oracle currently deploys Java 2.x in parallel, with the latest being version 25. The future of IBM WebSphere Application Server remains uncertain since it's based on Java 1.8 and Java 7. I haven't found any white papers or official documentation from IBM outlining their trajectory post-2030.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"With minimal effort, Zing has helped us improve our latency performance dramatically."
"GC Pause times are maintained in low milliseconds, which is beneficial for applications with high volume, high memory allocation rate, and a high memory footprint, and it also increases throughput by approximately 20-25% as compared to Oracle Java Development Kit based on some tests that I have done with real applications."
"Performance of the JVM, especially the C4 Pauseless Garbage Collection, for continuous application execution is the most valuable feature."
"With Zing, we've now been able to re-allocate those tuning resources to general product development."
"No other JVM on the market even comes close to competing with the Azul Zing."
"With minimal effort, Zing has helped us improve our latency performance drastically."
"With minimal effort, Zing has helped us improve our latency performance dramatically."
"The non-stop garbage collector (C4 - Continuously Concurrent Compacting Collector) is the most valuable feature."
"WebSphere Application Server is very stable."
"It has helped tremendously."
"IBM WAS is the backbone for our enterprise content management suite which delivers the primary processes for our customers. Without a good application server, it would be hard to provide a secure layer of midddleware upon which the other applications run. IBM WAS improves the stability of the entire solution and provides a high quality platform for running web-based solutions."
"The integration between IBM tools and applications is very well executed, and the support from IBM is quite good, providing a solid support structure."
"Once you deploy your application, it will be very stable with no issues at all."
"It does integrate well with the Tivoli Federated Identity Management system."
"It integrates well with the Tivoli Federated Identity Management system, which works as a single sign-on mechanism for other e-services that we have shared with other clients."
"If you want a product you can have confidence in, and a product with good availability, then IBM WebSphere Application Server is for you."
 

Cons

"It is extremely expensive."
"However, like every other great product, there is always something that can be improved."
"The licensing over non-production environments considerably affects the cost of our solution as a software vendor."
"We have encounter stability issues and that has been a source of frustration at times."
"Although Azul claims to have a fast warmup, we still experience higher latency for the first trade when our system starts up on Sundays."
"The profiling tools included with Zing lag behind those available for Oracle's Java implementation."
"Although Azul claims to have a fast warmup, we still experience higher latency for the first trade when our system starts up on Sundays."
"I think IBM WebSphere Application Server is a dead solution and will probably fade out."
"The business logic side of it is sort of missing in the sense that if I want to track and measure velocity, it is not really available. You have to buy another application and embark on a separate implementation. Instead of having different licensing, IBM DataPower should be integrated with WebSphere. It will allow us to build the business layer and rules a lot more efficiently, rather than developing rules within the application. It would be good if we can set up the business layer through parametrization rather than development. IBM DataPower has the business rule and the controls, and if it can be integrated, it would be fantastic. It will help the application in working better in terms of security features and business logic. If you're going to use it for open banking, you will be able to monitor velocity on the total pricing."
"WebSphere Application Server doesn't have an automated deployment option, forcing us to use third-party tools like Jenkins UCD and Palo Automated Deployment."
"Some things are very difficult to do, so the interface and usage could be more intuitive for those."
"The availability of the solution needs improvement. The product should be more enhanced and responsive."
"The current trend is to move to Liberty because of the portability of its cloud and its Kubernetes, which containerize the application."
"In the next release of this solution, I would like to see support for the Arabic language."
"What could be improved in IBM WebSphere Application Server is its interconnection with other products, for example, Kafka. What I'd like to see in the next release of the solution is a better graphical user interface."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available
"It's expensive."
"We used to pay about $100,000-$120,000 US or somewhere around there. That was a bit cost-prohibitive for us to continue."
"We pay around $200,000 annually."
"The price of this product is higher than that of competitors."
"When you purchase Maximo, you get WebSphere for free."
"My company is on a perpetual or permanent license agreement with IBM WebSphere Application Server. There's also a pay-per-use option, but customers rarely choose that option. Most of the customers are on the perpetual license deal that's all-inclusive. As the license cost is quite expensive, I'm rating it two out of five."
"If your application is just a web app that does not need to scale big, you can obtain a single core license of WAS Express edition, which has almost the same features with limited processing cores. If you manage a very big application farm (i.e. need to run 10 or more WAS servers) it is better to get IBM WAS Hypervisor Edition."
"The pricing is a little expensive."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
23%
Manufacturing Company
13%
Construction Company
12%
Comms Service Provider
8%
Financial Services Firm
28%
Comms Service Provider
8%
Computer Software Company
7%
Construction Company
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business4
Midsize Enterprise4
Large Enterprise2
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business9
Midsize Enterprise6
Large Enterprise23
 

Questions from the Community

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IBM WebSphere Application Server?
At Royal Bank, which is a major IBM customer with mainframes and numerous IBM products, they have a specific agreement regarding pricing. The pricing structure for large enterprise customers differ...
What needs improvement with IBM WebSphere Application Server?
IBM WebSphere Application Server is currently at version 9.0.5.23. In recent months, they released fix 23, as they periodically release fixes. Previously, they frequently increased versions, but no...
What is your primary use case for IBM WebSphere Application Server?
I was part of an application where I integrated IBM WebSphere Application Server with Node.js and Blue Prism. I did a lot of REST applications because at my core, I'm a developer. Currently, I'm an...
 

Also Known As

No data available
WebSphere Application Server
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Priceline, RBS, Credit Suisse, ING, Creditex, Nielsen, Workday, Saks Fifth Avenue, Entergy, Quotix, Puma and many more.  Visit azul.com for more.
TalkTalk, Property management group, E.SUN Bank, Ohio National Financial Services, Aviarc, Cincom Systems, FJA-US, D+H, Staples, Michigan Municipal League
Find out what your peers are saying about Azul Zing vs. IBM WebSphere Application Server and other solutions. Updated: September 2026.
913,683 professionals have used our research since 2012.